Why Carbon?
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Weather Resistant
We all know how wooden guitars can move and indeed even sound different depending on temperature and humidity changes. Well carbon Fiber guitars dont suffer from this problem. Carbon is impervious to temperature and humidity changes making it the perfect construction material for guitars that may experience fluctuations in climate through the seasonal changes or with travel from one destination to another.
Our guitars have proven themselves from the Arctic to the Sahara and everywhere in between
Aerospace Carbon
The first uses of carbon fiber where in the most demanding industries such as Aerospace and high performance motorsport. In these industries Carbon is chosen for its high strength to weight ratio and stability under tension. It just so happens that these are exactly the same characteristics needed to build a high quality and highly responsive acoustic instrument.
Did you know that our Founder Alistair Hay refined his skills while building Formula 1 racing boats?
Ergonomic Design
Moulding a guitar with carbon fibre gives us so much more freedom when it comes to design. Our unique one piece moulding process allows us the freedom to create subtle yet complex curves that allow the guitar to conform to the players body better making the guitar feel smaller and more comfortable. The details such as the assymetrical sides, extended access neck joint, forearm bevels and offset soundhole are just some of the ergonomic features that Emerald guitars offer as a result of our construction methods.
Unique Manufacturing Process
Over the years Emerald have refined their unique one piece moulding technology that allows the entire guitar to be moulded together in one piece.
The entire neck and body are moulded together in one piece giving a guitar that is incredibly strong and stable with no joints to fail and this in turn makes a guitar with incredible resonance and sustain.
Plek Perfect Frets
Emerald have invested heavily in the Plek technology that allows us to scan every fretboard while it is under tension and tuned to pitch and then using some very innovative software allows us to machine the frets to the perfect tolerance taking into account fret radius, action height, neck relief and string gauge.
The perfect playability is a complex interplay of all these parameters and we believe Plek allows us to get to a level of precision and repeatability that human skill just cannot achieve.
Soundhole Projection
The unique soundhole on Emerald guitars is much more than just an interesting visual feature, it also offers fantastic acoustic benefits.
The traditional centre soundhole on a guitar is actually placed in a very structurally critical part of the guitar where most forces are exerted. Moving the soundhole to the side avoids the need for extra bracing on the top and allows us to make the top lighter and more responsive with a larger free vibrational area.
We have positioned the soundhole in a way that it straddles both the top and side of the guitar which helps to project the sound both up towards the player and also forward towards an audience. You truly do hear these guitars in a different way, many have said its like having a monitor projecting the sound of your guitar towards you.
Hand Made
While we use a modern and high tech material our guitars are still very much hand made. We have a highly skilled team of craftsmen that spend many hours on every guitar refining every detail to give you a guitar that has been designed with passion and crafted with Love
Fully Intonateable
Acoustic Bridge
We have recently developed the fully adjustable acoustic bridge that gives all the adjustability of an electric guitar but still transfers the acoustic energy into the soundboard which is vital for an acoustic guitar. We machine these innovative bridges out of a solid block of carbon fiber which yields a bridge that is accurate strong, light weight and resonant which in turns preserves the tonality and projection of the instrument.
This bridge now allows you to adjust the string height and intonation point of the saddles giving you greater freedom in setup and string choice.
Pickup Technology
We have developed a suite of pickup options that gives you a wide array of innovative options to meet any playing style and stage.
We partner with Fishman, LR-Baggs and Graphtech to bring you pickup choices that have been developed specifically for our unique range of guitars.
3D Builder
Our 3D builder tool is an industry leading interface that allows you to see each model in 3 Dimensions and zoom in on any detail from any angle to give you an unprecedented understanding of the details of our guitars. You can also select from many custom options to build the guitar of your dreams and see that dream guitar in 3D before you buy
Custom Veneers
We love the look of carbon fiber but we also want to make guitars that are as unique as the musicians we build them for. Emerald guitars created and refined the process of fusing a very thin sheet of real wood veneer to the top of our guitars during the moulding process which gives a beautiful soundboard that has all the structure and strength of carbon fiber with the unique beauty of exotic wood.
Our Location
The Emerald factory is located on the side of a hill in Rural Donegal Ireland. Why is this important you might ask? well we believe that we are influenced by our surroundings and somehow the beauty and inspiration of our location seeps its way into every guitar we build. Why dont you come and visit us and experience the magic of our location for yourself.